Route 35 construction brings new headaches to Sandy victims

'"When they come by with the roller, my nerves get unnerved.I have to leave.' Steve Swyberius, Ortley Beach resident

Ken Langdon knew he was in trouble when his wife’s expensive decorative china began to shake. The floral teacups rattled in their saucers on the wooden display case hanging from the living room wall. The blue Delft-styled plates on high shelves throughout the dining area began their own rolling dance.

This shake, rattle and roll started just as the Langdons thought things were back to normal. They live about 200 yards from the ocean in Ortley Beach, and Hurricane Sandy brought a few feet of sea water into their home and tons of sand into their yard 19 months ago.

Ken Langdon, who designed and built the house, put it back good as new and quickly. Maybe too fast. Because while he was done, heavy work on either side of him was just beginning.

"We just got through putting things together when they started driving the pilings next door," said the retired electronics engineer.

His neighbors were raising their flood-ruined house, and the bam-bam-bam of the crew sinking 16 telephone pole-sized pilings 18 feet into the ground had Langdon’s newly Sheetrocked and painted house doing a seismic shudder. A crack in the ceiling runs the length of his living room, and there are others.

But the pile-driving was only part of the problem.

"We’re getting it from both sides," Langdon said.

On the other side of Langdon’s house is Route 35, a massive infrastructure project that has brought an army of heavy equipment to Langdon’s doorstep.

Sandy tore up the old concrete highway and the state moved ahead with a $200 million project to not only rebuild the road deeper and stronger, but lay in new water and gas lines. About $31 million will be for a new stormwater drainage system with nine pumping stations to move flooding off the low-lying streets and into the bay through new pipes with anti-flowback gates.

And while the residents see the long-term benefits of the new highway, well, it’s the little things that drive you crazy.

"When they come by with the roller, my nerves get unnerved," said Steve Swyberius, who lives inches from Route 35 South’s parallel acess road. "I have to leave."

Not only are Swyberius’ nerves getting unnerved, the repair work he did after Sandy is getting undone, he said. The vibrations from the digging of drainage trenches, pounding in steel walls to prevent soil collapse in those trenches, ripping up the old highway and laying down the new foundation, and paving the top layers has left Swyberius with 15 cracks in his foundation and his cinderblock stairs are coming apart.

"We had water inside, but the hurricane didn’t do anything to the foundation," he said. "This construction is much worse."

The Sandy flood forced Swyberius to remodel his whole downstairs. New Sheetrock, trim, paint, floors and carpeting at a cost of about $135,000, of which $99,000 was paid by insurance. Now there are cracks in the Sheetrock, especially near doorways.

For Sam Iacobone, the little thing that is driving him crazy is a $500 claim for the damage the construction did to his house.

Ortley Beach resident Sam Iacobone stands outside his newly rebuilt home. The state rejected a $500 claim he filed for damage caused to the house by construction. It was rejected without any officials visiting his home to survey the damage.Andrew Mills/The Star-Ledger

"I got flooded by the hurricane and I had no problems," said Iacobone. "My insurance company was great; they covered it all."

The flood repairs cost about $89,000 and Iacobone took out a Small Business Administration loan for $90,000 to raise his house.

In December, the road crew began to drive steel walls into the ditches where the storm drain pipes would go. Iacobone’s newly refinished walls began to show their seams.

"It cost about $1,200 to fix the cracks," he said. "My insurance company covered all but the deductible ($500)."

The state put in a community outreach program for Route 35 residents, and Iacobone called to see about filing a claim for the deductible.

"All I wanted was the $500,’’ he said.

He was sent a five-page form to send to the Department of Treasury’s Bureau of Risk Management, which required a police report, witnesses and a diagram of the damage. The state in turn sent it to the contractor and contractor’s insurance company. After five weeks, he got a letter from the contractor’s insurance company denying the claim.

The letter, viewed by The Star-Ledger, said the company "conducted a thorough investigation" and had "not developed any information or evidence" that the vibrations of machines that pound steel walls into the ground or rip up 24 inches of concrete highway would cause a crack in a piece of Sheetrock a child can break with their hands.

Joe Perone, the spokesman for the Treasury Department, said only four such claims have been filed and no payments made.

For Iacobone, what was at first just about $500 is now about the principle.

"They said they made a thorough inspection, but no one ever came into my house to look at the damage," he said.

"For four months, these guys were pounding outside my door from 7 in the morning and going all day," he said. "I get that. The work has to be done. I can put up with the noise, the smell, the traffic. …But for them to deny a $500 claim — $500! — and say they didn’t cause the damage? I mean, c’mon. Haven’t we been through enough down here?"